NEPSAC boys basketball president Mike Hart has announced new league class definitions and names effective immediately for the upcoming 2010-2011 season.

Out are the old A through class DD definitions. In are new classifications that are now termed AAA, AA, A, B, C, and D.

The goal is the creation of more/better opportunities for kids and a more level playing field for programs at every level.

“It’s fair and we’ve created opportunities for kids to be successful and play in a good basketball league…Each league is going to have exciting playoffs. Many teams have a chance to qualify for playoffs and possibly win a championship instead of having the same teams every year,” Hart explained (NEPSAC Realignment Finalized).

In the new framework, classes A, B, C, & D are traditional enrollment based classifications while AA and AAA include teams with institutional commitment and resources behind their programs- a desire to play high level basketball and prepare a certain number of players for NCAA division I programs. Any school has the option of building a program and devoting resources to ‘playing up’ in the AAA and AA classes.

With tighter division definitions comes tighter scheduling requirements with total number of game limits and limited opportunities to ‘schedule up.” For comparison:

Class AAA
Schedule – Each team is limited to 34 games including tournaments but is allowed to schedule any opponent they desire.

Class B
Schedule – Each team is limited to 25 games including tournaments and allowed to play no more than six non-conference games “up” against teams from higher leagues. If a school’s location makes this a hardship, budgetary or otherwise, the school can appeal to the association.

Defined inter-class opportunities provide enough scheduling latitude to keep traditional leagues and traditional rivalries intact. NEPSAC member schools almost uniformly support the new classifications. Hart again”

“We finally have a model of classification where almost everyone agrees…There were very few complaints. Three to be exact.”

From my “fan’s perspective” the segmenting of the old class A into two classes is interesting. Although the difference in 4 total games is the written definition in separating AAA from AA, the split seems rooted in resources devoted to the programs . AAA and AA schools can play anyone now, and I know that plenty of AA schools will be on AAA schedules. Each will schedule some college JV teams.

But I keep looking at the shrinking list of AAA schools (the old class A) and shaking my head. This list keeps shrinking. It seems that the ‘have most(s)’ have been given their own league and the ‘have almost as much(es)’ have been given their own space. Everybody gets the chance to win their own tournament.

Part of me, however, keeps asking, wouldn’t it have been healthier to build a stronger league, for the AAA and AA teams to play in a single division with all teams agreeing to and playing by a single set of guidelines that create a larger, stronger, more vibrant class? I know you can’t issue budget limitations, but, how about a limit of X post graduates per team?

I already know the answer to my own question though. Getting the AAA teams to agree to limits it like trying to reign in NCAA Football Bowl Series member school spending. It’s great to be a top program. Restraint ain’t no fun when you’re the top of the heap.

Putting my fan’s hat back on, all of the AAA, AA, and A class schools play some great basketball.